Tunisia: Gafsa - An Arab Spring Essay

Revolutions are moments of transition which, once passed, may not need replication. Instead, they lay down an agenda for political and social change that through reform, struggles and democracy may take decades or centuries to be achieved……

The Arab Spring, or I’d rather call it the Arab Awakening, was sparked in 2008 by frustrated mine workers in the southern Tunisian town of Gafsa. The uprisings continued through late December 2010.

It was a fight for our freedom, and the right to live a decent life! Some of us forgot that and to them 14 January is just a memory of a burning man or a presidential campaign... that thought woke me up. It’s our duty to remind people... my people that the revolution isn’t over yet. And what’s a better than to draw our Tunisian flag with our palm prints over it? Everyone can leave part of him or herself so that it is unique, despite all of our differences, political and social. We, the GCC leaders, decided to make it possible …  so we posted on Facebook our event Palm print so everyone could participate. We distributed flyers and the turn out was incredible.

The first day we got up early to clean the wall that was given to us by the direction of original education. We wiped off old posters and painted a fresh coat of white. Everyone helped - bringing ladders and tools, even donating paint. We were one, as a family, and little by little our Tunisian flag started to be formed.  

It wasn’t just a national flag anymore... it was true meaning of global citizenship in Tunisia!!